Six Roosevelt Students Participate in Filming of PBS Show

Six Theodore Roosevelt High School students participated in the filming of Western Reserve Public Media’s new Micro Business for Teens: Starting a Micro Business program, set to air at 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO 45.1/WEAO 49.1).

Brent Pfeiffer, marketing education coordinator and DECA advisor at Roosevelt, said he awarded each of the marketing students/DECA chapter members extra credit for participating in the show’s filming.

Roosevelt students Jason Reeves, Annie Church, Maggie Green, Diamond Chesser and Connor Thomas were part of the studio audience. Hudson High School student Maddie Medkeff – who comes to Kent every school day to participate in Roosevelt’s marketing class – was one of seven attendees chosen to participate in the program's Q&A segment.

Carol Topp, a Cincinnati-based certified public accountant, hosts the 90-minute program that is based on her Micro Business for Teens book series. The program celebrates National Entrepreneurship Week, which runs through Saturday.

Topp presents the content in seminar style with a live studio audience of Northeast Ohio teens, parents and educators. The program, taped at Kent State University's Wright-Curtis Theatre, also features six teens who are already operating a variety of profitable micro businesses. 

Diane Steinert, communications coordinator for Western Reserve Media, said she sat in on the program's taping and found the content to be “interesting and informative. It responds to a growing interest among teens and adults in starting or owning a business.”

Steinert said Topp makes the very notion of creating a micro business an achievable goal for those who have a good idea and the enthusiasm to design and implement a plan of action. It discusses what a micro business is, gives examples of businesses suitable for teenagers, offers instruction on writing a business plan, financing the business and more.

Pfeiffer, who is also an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Kent State, said Western Reserve Media contacted the Roosevelt DECA chapter about participating in the filming because of its solid reputation in the community.

This school year there are about 30 juniors and seniors in Roosevelt’s marketing education program; DECA is an international organization of marketing students.

“At Roosevelt, we use (DECA) to enhance the marketing curriculum,” Pfeiffer said. “We do a ton of work in the community on projects with business owners and community leaders to give (students) as much real-world experience as we can.”

Western Reserve PBS is the only broadcast television service that reaches all of northeast Ohio. It is available to 1.8 million households and 4.9 million people in the Cleveland and Youngstown designated market areas. In an average month, more than 1 million people tune in.

Micro Business for Teens: Starting a Micro Business will be released nationally to PBS affiliates this spring.